The maintenance and husbandry of animals includes concerns regarding the threat of skin infections and abrasions. The prior art includes leggings and pads that are applied to cushion limbs of animals from contact with or exposure to objects and conditions that can cause or aggravate skin eruptions, open wounds, or blisters.
The prior art provides efforts to protect elements of animal physiology related to joints. In one exemplary area of prior art, protective devices for hock joints of large animals are provided that generally have means of securing a protective pad above and below the hock joint (hereafter “the hock”). Certain prior art hock protectors employ a semi-cylindrical shape and are made as one-size-fits-all. Prior art animal skin protectors of this type have the drawbacks of (1) restricting the free movement of the target animal joint; (2) being prone to changing position on the target joint which can render the protector ineffective by undesirable repositioning; (3) being cumbersome and difficult to install; (4) being prone to simply falling off and away from the animal; and (5) failing to allow sufficient airflow under the pad to control moisture or animal sweat disposed on the animal skin under the pad.
Prior art uses of ribs to hold a padded device in place can create additional rub points in areas where the target animal is generally likely to suffer sores. Furthermore, prior art leg protectors that have been designed for close contact with an animal leg to prevent slippage can contribute to and cause a retention of heat on animal skin, such as near an animal joint, for example a hock. A one-size-fits-all approach to prior art devices presents additional drawbacks in enabling sustained positioning relative to a target animal joint because there are variances within a species of circumferences of joints and limbs. In one exemplary application, it is known in the art that an adult horse in a normal range of motion may cause approximately a one-inch plus or minus 0.5 inch or more variance in the external circumference of a hock joint.
The horse hock is fundamentally important to the performance of a horse in motion as well a potential site of conditions that cause lameness. There is therefore a long-felt need for improved methods and devices for sustainable positioning a protective device relative to a selected area of an animal's skin, limb or joint.